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John Hamilton
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Born at Kilburnie, Scotland on 12 January 1913, the son of Andrew and Sophia Hamilton, the family moved to Manitoba in 1922 and he graduated grade 11 at Kelvin High School in 1931. On 2 May 1942, he married Augusta Flett (?-?) and was working as a packer and wrapper in the bakery for Safeway stores in Winnipeg.
On 23 May 1942, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant when he qualified for navigator’s wings on 9 July 1943 and, on 2 August 1943, he departed Halifax for England. On 9 April 1944, he was promoted to the rank of Flight Sergeant, and, on 30 April 1944, he joined 138 (Special Duties) Squadron at RAF Station Tempsford, England.
On 8 June 1944, Halifax aircraft LL416 went missing after it departed RAF Station Tempsford on a secret night operation to drop agents and supplies to the French underground. The crew comprised seven Canadians and one Brit. According to Sergeant Hinds RAF, Halifax LL416 was hit by machine gun fire near the target and, with the ‘whole front ablaze’, the pilot ordered the crew to evacuate the aircraft. Sergeant Hinds took to the silk and was the only member of the crew to escape the aircraft before it crashed. When he landed, Hinds observed two vehicles heading towards the site of a ‘great explosion’ approximately a half mile away. He never saw the other members of the crew again. The remains of the crew were buried in a local cemetery.
He was buried in the Communal Cemetery in La Ferte-St. Cyr, Loire-et-Cher, France. In 1995, the Province of Manitoba named Hamilton Peninsula on Greening Lake in his honour.
Marriage registration [John Hamilton, Augusta Flett], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
This page was prepared by Robert Nash.
Page revised: 24 May 2024
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